Govt appoints CEO, directors at Pancheshwar Authority
KATHMANDU:
The government has filled three positions, including that of chief executive officer (CEO), at Pancheshwar Development Authority (PDA), which will oversee the development of the 5,600-megawatt Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project being built jointly by Nepal and India in the far western part of the country.
The government has appointed Mahendra Gurung, former director general at the Department of Electricity Development and the Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention, to the post of the CEO at PDA. Gurung, an irrigation expert, is said to be close to the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist.
“His appointment has been endorsed by the Cabinet,” Energy Secretary Rajendra Kishore Kshatri told The Himalayan Times. The Cabinet approved Gurung’s name based on a recommendation made by the Ministry of Energy (MoE).
Also, Dilip Kumar Sadaula has been appointed to the post of director (environment) and Rudra Prasad Sitaula has been appointed to the post of director (legal) at the PDA. Sadaula is the chief of Pancheshwar Project, while Sitaula is a joint secretary at the MoE.
Although the name of Narayan Sanjel, a former government joint secretary, was also recommended for the post of director (administration), it was rejected by the Cabinet.
While launching PDA’s statute in September, Nepal and India had agreed to form an executive committee comprising a CEO, an additional CEO and six directors. At that time, it was also agreed that the first CEO of PDA — who’ll be in office for a three-year term — would be a Nepali, while the additional CEO would be an Indian national.
Likewise, of the six directors, three would be from Nepal and the other three, including finance director, would be from India.
India has already forwarded names of two central government officials for the post of additional CEO and director (technical). This means India needs to appoint two more persons to the post of directors at the executive committee of PDA, while Nepal needs to depute one person to the post of director.
It is essential to give a full shape to the executive committee at the earliest because it has to oversee the process of drafting the detailed project report (DPR).
Earlier, Nepal and India had prepared their own DPRs. However, these reports need to be updated, in view of construction cost escalation, and changes in socio-economic and hydro-meteorological data.
In this regard, Nepal and India have appointed WAPCOS, an Indian state-owned company, to prepare a new DPR of Pancheshwar.
Source: THT
